The South Australian Derby is always a fascinating race – but not always because of the talent that lines up. In fact, it is sometimes the lack of depth that makes it so intriguing. It occasionally throws up a Cups horse – Mummify won the Caulfield Cup in 2003 following victory in this race – but many years the form fails to stack up. It will be interesting to see what happens this year.

 Form Guide

STRIKE THE STARS comes into the race with the best form. At his most recent start he finished fourth toEthiopiain the Australian Derby, while his only run in the anti-clockwise direction produced a brilliant second to Mosheen in the Australian Guineas. I think, now he’s had the run at 2400m, he’s the one to beat. In fact, I’d be very surprised if he missed a place.

The only horse I can see beating him is TOHUNGA. This son of Zabeel, out of the former top Kiwi mare Justa Tad, is trained by the very much in-form Gai Waterhouse. He’s only coming out of a benchmark 65 at Kembla Grange but he has plenty of scope and is a stayer of the future. Another son of Zabeel, ZABEELIONAIRE, has promised much but has not delivered. He may have won two of his last three but he’s still been grossly disappointing this campaign. If he runs up to his spring form, he’d be going very close but I’m still wary on his current form.

For fourth, I don’t really want to offer a tip but I’ll throw in NICONOISE who is at huge odds (fairly) but has shown enough promise at times to suggest he could run a race.

1 – STRIKE THE STARS
17 – TOHUNGA
3 – ZABEELIONAIRE
12 – NICONOISE